Exhibition - Jan Palach

Exhibition
Jan Palach
Jan Palach
'69
Organizers of the exhibition:
Faculty of Philosophy & Arts, Charles University
National Museum
Partners:
The Archive of Security Forces
Slovak Film Institute
The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
ETNA spol. s r. o.
(Photo: Viktor Portel)
Jan Palach '69
In January 1969, the 20-year-old student
Jan Palach set himself on fire on Wenceslas
Square (Václavské náměstí) in Prague. He
wanted to provoke his fellow citizens to rise
up against the impending „normalization“
period. Even though he did not succeed
in reversing those political developments,
his actions became deeply engraved into
the memory of society. However, ever
since his death he has most often been
remembered primarily as a symbol whether as a „torch“, a victim, or a national
hero. This exhibition hopes to offer a
different perspective, placing the life and
actions of Jan Palach in historical context. It
endeavors to place his story in the context
of the Prague Spring and the impending
„normalization“, to present Palach‘s life and
the intellectual background from which he
came, and to describe the planning and
performance of his action as well as the
response it evoked from society.
We are aware that an historical perspective
has certain limitations. It is not able to
focus on the more universal questions
which, in the final analysis, are the most
important addressed by Palach‘s action
to this day. Nevertheless, we selected this
approach because it is only fairly recently
that several important archives have been
opened which have a bearing on Palach‘s
actions and make it possible only now
to clarify many essential facts. Also, we
believe a sober view of these events may
be the best way to „prepare the soil“ for
those more universal questions. Should
this exhibition succeed in being such an
inspiration, its purpose will have been
fulfilled.
The Authors
Alexander Dubček with steel workers in Ostrava, 20
September 1968 (Source: ÚSD AV ČR)
Antonín Novotný giving
a New Year’s speech, 1967
(Source: ČTK, Photo: Jiří Rublič)
From the Prague Spring to the August Occupation
Since the start of the 1960s, Czechoslovak
society had been gradually waking up to a
new life. The majority of political prisoners
were released, the first plans for reform were
being drafted at academic institutions, and
the previously banned novels and films of the
“New Wave” began to be available. President
Antonín Novotný, a man connected with the
show trials of the 1950s, tolerated a certain
amount of liberalization in the beginning, but
by 1966 he had once again instituted a harsh
policy of persecution. At the same time, however, an intraparty opposition had been created
which removed him from the leadership of the
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in January
1968, replacing him with Alexander Dubček.
The brief eight-month period during which
the democratizing reforms were accelerated
at an unusually rapid pace is primarily connected to Dubček. By the end of March 1968,
censorship was no longer and the media had
begun to investigate matters from the recent
past which had previously been taboo; it was
due to the influence of such reporting that
Novotný now had to resign the office of the
presidency. He was replaced by the pro-reform Ludvík Svoboda. Other state offices were
also gradually occupied by reform-oriented
politicians. In April 1968, the Communist Party
of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) approved an Action
Program in which it presented its plans for
reform.
These unexpected events of the spring of
1968 prompted spontaneous public enthusiasm, which came to be symbolized by the
May 1st celebrations. However, politically
active members of the public were demanding much more extensive reforms than the
party was willing to allow at the time. Even
the greatest reformers in the KSČ leadership
took a dim view of the activities of the Club
of Engaged Non-Partisans (Klub angažovaných nestraníků), the creation of the political
prisoners’ association K 231, or the attempt to
revive social democracy. The manifesto “Two
Thousand Words” literally started a panic in
the KSČ Central Committee.
By then Czechoslovak politicians had already experienced several negotiations with
representatives of the Soviet Union, who were
calling for the reforms to stop. Even though
Dubček promised to intervene, he took no
visible steps. Soviet diplomatic pressure was
therefore replaced by a military solution: In
the early morning hours of 21 August 1968,
Czechoslovakia was occupied by the armies of
five Warsaw Pact states. However, the invasion
prompted nationwide resistance, thanks to
which the occupiers did not succeed in establishing a collaborationist government. President Svoboda and several other politicians
then traveled to Moscow and convinced the
kidnapped representatives of the KSČ to sign a
capitulation agreement with the Soviets.
The KSČ leadership at the
head of the May 1st parade,
1968. In the first row, from
right to left: Kučera, Piller,
Kriegel, Dubček, Svoboda,
Husák (Source: ČTK)
The KSČ action program
presented a plan for the
reforms the party wanted to
achieve during the next two
years (Source: ÚSD AV ČR)
For a brief time in the spring
of 1968, Alexander Dubček
became the most popular
personality in Czechoslovakia
(Source: National Museum)
The writer Ludvík Vaculík was
the author of the manifesto
“Two Thousand Words”
(Source: National Museum)
Vinohradská třída in Prague,
21 August 1968 (Source:
National Museum)
Occupying tanks in Prague,
21 August 1968 (Source:
National Museum)
Soldiers also shot at the
National Museum. People
standing in front of the
building took cover (Source:
National Museum)
Anti-occupation posters in
Brno (Source: National Museum,
Photo: Dušan Blaha)
Graffiti from the days of
August in Vsetín (Source:
National Museum)
On 28 October 1968 a demonstration took place in Prague;
participants clashed with police (Source: National Museum)
First and last pages of the
Moscow Protocol through
which the Czechoslovak
Government committed itself
to actual subordination to
Moscow (Source: ÚSD AV ČR)
Autumn 1968 – The End of Hope
On 26 August 1968, the Czechoslovak delegation in Moscow signed the so-called Moscow
Protocol. In it, the delegation agreed, among
other steps, to abolish the conclusions of the
party’s extraordinary XIVth convention, held
in Prague’s Vysočany district, which had taken
a clear stand against the occupation. The delegation committed itself to purging the top
management of all the media organizations,
to renewing censorship, and to preventing the
occupation from being discussed at the UN
Security Council.
When the politicians returned to Czechoslovakia, the public no longer placed much trust in
them, and they did not want to speak openly
about the results of the negotiations. Alexander Dubček once again reached out towards
a part of the public, assuring citizens in an
emotional speech that reforms would continue, albeit at a slower pace. However, in reality,
policy was already headed in a completely
different direction. On 6 September 1968, František Kriegel was removed from the head of
the National Front, having been the only politician who refused to sign the Moscow Protocol.
Not long afterward, state television director Jiří
Pelikán and state radio director Zdeněk Hejzlar
lost their positions. Zdeněk Mlynář, one of the
main authors of the Action Program, resigned
as Secretary of the KSČ Central Committee in
the autumn of 1968.
On 18 October 1968, the National Assembly
approved a treaty on the temporary continuance of the Soviet soldiers, legalizing the
continued presence of 75 000 Soviet soldiers
on the territory of the ČSSR. The government
made another concession on 8 November
1968 when it temporarily halted publication
of the critical journals Reportér and Politika.
The ascendancy of conservatives was completed at a meeting of the Central Committee
of the KSČ from 14–17 November 1968. They
succeeded both in occupying several important posts and in pushing through a resolution
establishing a plan for further “normalization”. The Slovak politician Gustáv Husák had
acquired a strong position in the party. In
December 1968 he proposed replacing the
presumptive candidate for the chair of the
new Federal Assembly, Josef Smrkovský (a
Czech), with a representative of the Slovaks in
order to maintain the federative principle. The
public demonstratively stood up for Smrkovský, who was one of the favorite personalities
of the Prague Spring, but Smrkovský rejected
their support. The conservatives thus gained
another victory, which was definitively sealed
in April 1969 through the election of Gustáv
Husák as First Secretary of the Central Committee.
At the 28 October 1968
demonstration in Prague, 77
people were detained. During
subsequent demonstrations
on 6 and 7 November 1968
in the capital, 167 people
were detained. On those
same days there were also
demonstrations in Brno and
České Budějovice (Source:
National Museum)
On 8 November 1968 the
publication of the “overly
critical” weekly Reportér
was halted for one month.
Cover from 18 September
1968; clockwise from the
upper left - Oldřich Černík,
Alexander Dubček, Josef
Smrkovský and Gustáv Husák;
President Ludvík Svoboda is
in the center (Source: National
Museum)
Response of the humor
magazine Dikobraz to the
measures of 8 November 1968
(Source: National Museum)
Publication of the journal
Politika was halted along
with Reportér. Cover from
3 October 1968: Gustáv Husák
(on the left) and Alexander
Dubček (Source: National
Museum)
Front page of the daily Práce,
19 October 1968, reporting on
the ratification of the treaty on
the temporary continuance of
Soviet troops (Source: National
Museum)
Student-run Majáles Festival in Prague, May 1966 (Photo: Miloš Šindelář)
Student demonstration on the
Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) in Prague, 3 May
1968 (Source: National Archive)
Lubomír Holeček (on the left)
and Jiří Müller had to join the
army after being expelled
from their studies. They were
released from military service
at the start of 1968 (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Müller)
Response of the journal Student to the “Moscow Protocol”
of 26 August 1968 (Source: Libri
Prohibiti)
The student movement in Czechoslovakia
Student life in Czechoslovakia had been
harshly suppressed after February 1948, but
starting in the first half of the 1960s, it began
to gradually liberalize. Active students gathered around the journals published by various
faculties and around the committees of the
Czechoslovak Youth Union, while at some
schools completely new, independent committees sprang up, such as the club Klikoživ
– Klika opozičních živlů (the “Pressure-Group
of Opposition Elements”) at the Philosophical
Faculty of Charles University. The student-run
Majáles Festivals, which were watched by hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of
Prague, exemplified this liberalization in the
mid-1960s.
However, by 1966 the leadership of the regime
was returning to a harsher course of action.
Two events symbolized that return: The expulsion of student leaders Jiří Müller and Lubomír
Holeček from the Czech Technical University;
and above all, the “Strahov events” of October
1967. After one of the regular failures of electricity at the dormitories in Strahov, the students
took to the streets, where they were brutally
dispersed by police. The disproportionate intervention provoked great controversy, even in
the leadership of the KSČ, and became one of
the inducements for discussing the removal of
Antonín Novotný. For the students themselves,
the events constituted a definitive break with
the pro-regime Czechoslovak Youth Union.
In the spring of 1968, independent Student
Academic Councils and other organizations
sprang up at the faculties, and the Union of
College Students of Bohemia and Moravia was
established.
The students markedly intervened into statewide affairs. In March 1968 they held public
youth meetings at which they confronted
representatives of the reform process with
a sharp critique of the KSČ and the demand
that opposition parties be allowed. Moreover,
these meetings were broadcast on the radio,
thanks to which the radical opinions of the
students could be heard by the greater public.
After the August occupation and throughout
the autumn of 1968, the students were the
most active group in resisting the oncoming
“normalization”. They organized strikes that
took place from 18–21 November, occupying
faculties throughout Czechoslovakia in support of the “Students’ 10 Commandments”,
in which they presented a series of demands
to the KSČ leadership. However, none of the
demands were ever successfully implemented,
and feelings of hopelessness had begun to
spread among the students and the rest of
society by the end of 1968.
During the second half of the
1960s, student life was primarily concentrated around the
student journals. Covers of the
journals Buchar and Ekonom
(Source: Libri Prohibiti)
Majáles Festival in 1968 (Photo:
Miloš Šindelář)
The building of the Academy
of Arts, Architecture and Design (Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová) in Prague during
the November strikes of 1968
The college student strike
was also supported by some
high schools (Source: National
Archive)
Flier with points of the “Students’ 10 Commandments”
approved by the Union of
College Students of Bohemia
and Moravia on 11 November
1968 (Source: ABS)
Text by Jiří Müller on the student movement, published 19
April 1969 in the journal Elixír
(Source: ABS)
Law Faculty of Charles University on strike, November 1968
The strike occupying the faculties was to have ended on
20 November 1969. However,
due to a misinterpretation by
politicians, the students managed to extend it for another
24 hours. (Source: National
Archive)
Jan Palach with his grandfather (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Palach)
Josef Palach with his parents
in front of his sweet shop,
1930s (Source: Personal archive
of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach on a walk with
his parents (Source: Personal
archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach with his older
brother Jiří and their mother,
24 June 1950 (Source: Personal
archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach as a child (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Palach)
The elementary school in
Všetaty - Jan Palach is in the
third row, in the center (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach on his brother Jiří’s
motorbike (Source: Personal
archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach
Jan Palach participated in the strikes occupying the Philosophical Faculty of Charles
University as a 20-year-old student. Until 16
January 1969, the story of his life had not
been essentially much different from that of
his peers. Jan Palach was born on 11 August
1948, several months after the communist
putsch. He grew up in Všetaty, a small town
not quite 50 kilometers from Prague. His father,
Josef Palach, had run a confectionary and
sweet shop there since the mid-1930s. Josef’s
wife Libuše was a homemaker. Both parents
actively participated in local life, attending the
Sokol calisthenics society and performing in
amateur theater. Josef Palach was a member
of the National Socialist Party, while Libuše
Palachová was a member of the evangelical
choir in the nearby town of Libiše. The couple
tried to raise their sons, Jan and their first-born,
Jiří (1941), in the spirit of the First Republic and
patriotic traditions.
At the start of the 1950s, like the majority of
small business owners, the Palachs had to
close the sweet shop and a few years later, the
confectionary. Josef Palach was then only able
to do manual labor in the “Mlýny a pekárny“
enterprise in Brandýs nad Labem, while Libuše
Palachová began work as a sales clerk in a
“Restaurace a jídelna” stand at the Všetaty train
station. Despite these experiences, Libuše
Palachová joined the KSČ in 1957, for one reason only – she wanted to make sure her sons
could access higher education in the future.
In 1962 the family experienced a great shock
when Josef Palach died of a heart attack. The
older son Jiří was already grown, so Libuše
Palachová remained at home with Jan. In 1963,
Jan Palach began his studies at the gymnasium in Mělník. His teachers remember him as
an average pupil, but he excelled in history
and civics. He appeared before the graduating
committee in June 1966.
Jan Palach in his father’s Sokol
outfit (Source: Personal archive
of Jiří Palach)
Swimming during a family
trip to Kostelec nad Labem
(Source: Personal archive of Jiří
Palach)
Evaluation of Jan Palach by
the elementary school in
Všetaty, elaborated in March
1969 at the request of the
police (Source: ABS)
Evaluation of Jan Palach by
the gymnasium in Mělník,
elaborated at the request of
the police in February 1969
(Source: ABS)
Jan Palach’s CV, written as
required on the back page
of his college application,
1966 (Source: Charles University
Archive)
Photograph of Jan Palach from the graduation
tableau of the Mělnik Gymnasium, 1966 (Source: ABS)
VŠE students in front of the
Main Station in Prague after
returning from the USSR (Jan
Palach is sitting first on the
left), 1967 (Source: Personal
archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach (on the left with
camera) on a student trip
to the USSR, 1967 (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Palach)
Student in Prague
After graduation, Jan Palach wanted to study
history at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles
University. Even though he did well on the
entrance exams, he was not accepted due to
the high number of applicants. He therefore
registered to study agronomy at the University
of Economics (VŠE). Even though it was not
the field he dreamt of, he was able to complete 16 exams during his two years of study
at VŠE and to make his mark on student life
there. In the summer of 1967 he participated
in a work trip to Kazakhstan, and a year later
became the organizer of a similar work team,
this time traveling to the Leningrad area. In the
spring of 1968 he helped found the Student
Academic Council at VŠE.
Jan Palach experienced the Prague Spring
at VŠE. This period marked a fundamental
turning point in his life. He had always been
interested in politics, distributing various typescripts to his colleagues (a letter by Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, texts by Ludvík Vaculík, or transcripts of speeches from writers’ conferences)
but during 1968 his interest grew exponenti-
ally. In the spring of 1968 he attended many
discussion sessions and student meetings.
Jan Palach spent the summer of 1968 on a trip
to the USSR, returning on 17 August. Good
news awaited him at home – the announcement that he had been approved for transfer
to the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University. However, this was soon followed by a
shock: The occupation of Czechoslovakia. Jan
Palach spent the first night of the occupation
in Všetaty, but on the morning of 21 August
he left for Prague (despite his mother’s urging
him to stay) and spent the next several days
there. After returning to Všetaty, he and his
friends wrote anti-occupation slogans on the
streets there.
At the start of October 1968, Jan Palach visited
the West for the first time. As a reward for
organizing the work team to the USSR he had
received a trip to France, where he helped
harvest grapes. He returned to Czechoslovakia
on 19 October 1968, exactly one day after the
National Assembly approved the treaty on the
temporary continuance of the Soviet forces.
Report on a boy beaten by
occupying soldiers stationed
at the foot of the statue of St.
Václav, 22 August 1968
(Photo: Jan Palach)
Jan Palach’s enrollment
“index” from VŠE (Source:
Charles University Archive)
Tanks on Na Poříčí street
in Prague, 22 August 1968
(Photo: Jan Palach)
Slogans against the
occupation written by Jan
Palach with his friends in
Všetaty, August 1968
(Source: ABS)
Letter sent by Jan Palach to his
mother from France, October
1968 (Source: Personal archive
of Jiří Palach
Postcard sent by Jan Palach
to his brother’s family in 1968
from Tbilisi (Source: Personal
archive of Jiří Palach)
Jan Palach (Source: ABS)
Jan Palach’s proposal to occupy the building of Czechoslovak
Radio and broadcast a call for a general strike, which he
evidently gave to Lubomír Holeček at a student meeting 6
January 1969 (Source: ABS)
Preparing the Action
In October 1968, Jan Palach matriculated at
the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University
(FF UK). His friends recall that he participated
in several demonstrations in the autumn of
1968. He was meant to actively join the strikes
occupying the faculties in November 1968, but
those strikes did not succeed. During subsequent interrogations, his friends said a change
in his behavior occurred during this period.
For quite some time Jan Palach had been
contemplating radical action in order to spur
the public to resistance. He considered various
forms of protest, as is documented by a proposal he made to Lubomír Holeček at a gathering
of FF UK students at the start of January 1969
to occupy the building of Czechoslovak Radio
and broadcast a call for a general strike. Given
the failure of the strikes that had occupied the
faculties, he proposed that a small group of
students take the initiative and lead the broader public on to resistance.
Theses appear in this document which Palach
later also used in his letter “Pochodeň č. 1”
(“Torch No. 1”). The demands include, for
example, the abolition of censorship. Palach
evidently did not receive an answer to his call
for action and decided on another form of
protest, one which would be incomparably
more shocking than the violent occupation of
a single building and which would not require
lengthy, complicated preparations.
As investigators later determined, Palach took
all the concrete steps to prepare for his action
during a matter of hours. On the morning of
16 January 1969, he left Všetaty for Prague. He
seems to have arrived at his dormitory around
8 AM. In his room he wrote out a rough draft
of his letter and then made four copies. He
signed it as “Pochodeň č. 1” (“Torch No. 1”). In
the letter, he stated that he was a member of
a group whose members had decided to set
themselves on fire in order to wake the public
out of its lethargy. There are two demands
related to freedom of speech: The abolition
of censorship, and a ban on the distribution
of the occupiers’ publication, Zprávy. He also
called on people to go on an unlimited strike
in support of these demands. If the demands
were not met by 21 January 1969, another
“torch” would go up in flames.
Dear Colleague,
After some consideration I have decided to communicate my
proposal for an eventual student action to you in this way. Under
the current situation it is clear that isolated student actions,
whether strikes or demonstrations, are ineffective. It is easy to see
that without the assistance of the “mass media” no effective action
on a nationwide scale can be called for (e.g., a general strike).
I propose an action that might seem crazy at first glance (maybe
it is crazy). Instead of a demonstration, it seems more effective
and practical to me to occupy the radio and broadcast a call for
a strike, for the abolition of censorship, and in favor of Smrkovský
(for example.).
I believe the atmosphere today is favorable towards such an action
(Colotka is a candidate for Smrkovský, the Central Committee
declaration, etc.). Another such favorable situation may never
occur. The action itself could be carried out by a rather small
group, and then on our instructions a mass of students could
gather around the radio (the VŠE building, with 3 000 students,
is close by).
If this suggestion seems crazy to you, please throw it away and
don’t mention it to anyone. If it does not seem crazy, do what you
consider appropriate. Because I hate anonymity, and in order to
reduce the suspicion that this is a provocation, I am including my
address below
Jan Palach
kolej UK Spořilov 5/6
P.S. January ‘68 started from above, January ‘69 can start from
below.
Letter “Torch No. 1” sent to the Czechoslovak Writers’ Union
(Source: ABS)
Given that our nations have found themselves on the brink of
hopelessness and resignation, we have decided to express our
protest and to awaken the national conscience.
Our group is composed of volunteers who are determined to set
themselves on fire for our cause.
I had the honor to draw number one, and therefore I have earned
the right to write these first letters and to make my appearance as
the first torch.
Our demands are: 1) the immediate abolition of censorship 2)
a ban on the distribution of Zprávy. As you can see, our demands
are not extreme, rather the opposite. If our demands are not met
within five days, that is by 21. 1. 1969, and if the people do not
come out in sufficient support of these demands (through an
open-ended strike), another torch will go up in flames.
Torch No. 1
P.S.: I believe our nations will not need any more light. January
1968 started from above, January 1969 must start from below
(if it is to start at all).
Diagram sketched on 11 February 1969 by eyewitness Ing.
Josef Půhoný, who observed Jan Palach’s self-immolation
from the window of his office on the corner of Wenceslas
Square and Mezibranská street (Source: ABS)
Diagram sketched in March
1969 by police investigator
on the basis of testimony by
eyewitness Věra Miláčková
(Source: ABS)
In the late morning of 16
January 1969, Jan Palach purchased two plastic containers
and had them filled with
gasoline at the filling station.
(Source: ABS)
Photographs from the scene
taken on 16 January 1969 by
police (Source: ABS)
The place in front of the
National Museum where Jan
Palach set himself on fire
(Source: ABS)
A police lineman points out
the place to which the burning
Jan Palach ran (Source: ABS)
Copy of police notes on Jan
Palach’s action of 16 January
1969 (Source: ABS)
On Friday, 17 January 1969, the
daily Práce ran an article on Jan
Palach’s action. (Source: ABS)
Torch No. 1
Jan Palach’s shocking protest was seen by
many random eywitnesses whose testimonies
have been preserved in the police investigation files. On the basis of these testimonies,
we can precisely reconstruct Palach’s action
from the moment when, at just before 2:30
PM on Thursday, 16 January 1969, he arrived
at the fountain by the ramps leading up to
the National Museum. In his hands were two
plastic containers with four liters of gasoline in
them. He took off his coat next to the railing
and pulled out a bottle labeled “ether” from
his briefcase. He opened the bottle with a knife and held it up to his face. He then poured
gasoline over himself and set himself on fire by
the fountain.
Josef Kříž, a driver from Brno, was sitting in his
car several meters away from the scene and
noticed a figure on fire: When I saw the person
mentioned on fire, the flames were already
so powerful I could barely see the expression on his face .... However, before I could do
anything, the man on fire ran from the wall
beneath the Museum to the railing near my
vehicle, jumped over from the sidewalk side of
the railing, dashed around my vehicle and the
MB 1000 vehicle on my left, and then dashed
into the road, where he ran along the electric
streetcar rail that ran at that time from the bottom of Wenceslas Square up to the Museum.
Random witnesses put out the fire only after
the young man fell into the road not far from
the “Dům potravin” building. Palach called
on the onlookers to open the briefcase he
had left by the fountain and to read his letter.
Several minutes later an Interior Ministry ambulance, which happened to be driving past,
stopped at the scene. The burned Jan Palach,
who was still conscious, was first transferred
to the hospital at Karlovo náměstí. He was not
admitted there, but was sent to a specialized
clinic on Legerova street. Firefighters and police investigators also arrived at the scene soon
after to interrogate the initial eyewitnesses
and take photographs. Two hours later, ČTK
released the news that J. P., a student at the
Philosophical Faculty, had set himself on fire.
Map of the center of Prague
from that time showing places
related to Jan Palach’s action
1. The housewares store at Na
Poříčí 22, where Jan Palach
bought two plastic containers.
2. Jan Palach had the containers filled with four liters of
gasoline at the filling station
at Opletalová 9.
3. Jan Palach arrived at the
fountain by the lower ramps
of the National Museum just
before 2:30 PM.
4. The burned Jan Palach was
transferred by ambulance
first to the hospital at Karlovo
náměstí, but could not be
admitted there.
5. The plastic surgery clinic
of Faculty Hospital No. 10,
Legerova 61, where Jan Palach
died on 19 January 1969 at
3:30 PM.
6. On 25 February 1969, in a
building at Wenceslas Square
39, Jan Zajíc set himself on fire
and perished.
Message to Jan Palach (Source:
Personal archive of Jiří Palach)
Legerova street
Jan Palach was admitted at 2:45 PM to the
hospital in Legerova street. After being transferred to the trauma room he was treated by
Dr Marta Zádorožná, who discovered second
and third-degree burns on almost 85 % of his
body. She considered it unlikely that he could
live much longer with such burns.
Several hours after Palach’s action, the clinic
was besieged by journalists seeking information on the state of his health. Jarmila Doležalová, head of the burn department, therefore
decided to close the clinic, permitting visits
only by Palach’s mother, Libuše Palachová, and
his brother Jiří. She would not even admit the
police investigators who wanted details on
his potential followers into his room. She only
took a tape recorder from them, onto which
any eventual testimony by Palach was to have
been recorded, but for reasons which are
unclear the device was never used.
According to the recollections of the medical staff, Palach insisted that a group of his
followers really did exist. However, he refused
to say who the members were. On 17 January
1969, psychiatrist Zdenka Kmuníčková recorded a brief interview with Jan Palach on a cassette recorder (evidently a different one than
that provided by the police). In this interview,
Palach repeated his demands from the letter
and emphasized that his action was intended
to wake people up. When Dr Kmuníčková
asked him whether his followers should abandon their intentions in order to not have to
endure similar pain, he answered: It hurts, but
Hus also died on the woodpile.
On Sunday, 19 January 1969, Radko Vrabec,
the attending physician, called Palach’s
acquaintance Eva Bednáriková and asked her
to come to the hospital immediately, as Jan
Palach wanted to speak with her. According to
her testimony, Palach asked her to bring the
student leader Lubomír Holeček to him. When
she returned with Holeček to the hospital, Palach allegedly asked them to send a message
to the other members of his group not to set
themselves on fire. After they left his room,
Palach’s state of health significantly deteriorated and he died at 3:30 PM.
Service notes of police
investigator Major Jaroslav
Buchar on his visit to the clinic
in Legerova street, 18 January
1969 (Source: ABS)
Transcript of part of the
interview conducted with
Jan Palach in the hospital by
Dr Zdenka Kmuníčková, 17
January 1969 (Source: ABS)
Some of Jan Palach’s medical
records, January 1969 (Source:
ABS)
Photograph of Jan Palach after his death, 19 January 1969
(Photo: Vladimír Tůma)
Even after the flames were put out, Ryszard Siwiec
continued to call out that he was protesting the
occupation of Czechoslovakia (Source: Institute for the
National Memory, Warsaw)
Part of a commentary in
daily Rudé Právo on the
self-immolations in South
Vietnam, 28 June 1963 (Source:
Authors’ archive)
Malcolm Brown took this
snapshot of a Buddhist monk
committing self-immolation
in Saigon on 11 June 1963. The
reporter David Halberstam
was also an eyewitness to the
event, which he described in
The New York Times (Source:
ČTK)
The First Living Torches
When Jan Palach was taken to his hospital
room, he emphasized to the nurses that he
was not a suicide, but had set himself on fire in
protest like the Buddhists in Vietnam. He was
referring to an event from 1963, when photographs were published around the world of a
Buddhist monk who had set himself on fire to
protest the suppression of Buddhist traditions
in pro-American South Vietnam. Sixty-six-yearold Thich Quang Duc took at seat in the lotus
position at a busy intersection in Saigon on 11
June 1963, doused himself with gasoline, and
lit himself on fire. He did not perceive his action as suicide, but as a proxy sacrifice to move
the heart of the people. Other monks followed
his example, and as a result the leader of the
South Vietnamese regime, Ngo Dinh Diem,
was removed from power in November 1963.
Communist regimes exploited the Buddhists’
self-immolation for its propaganda value. Of
course, the actions were reported on as protests against American imperialism and their
religious motivation was left aside. Now at the
end of the 1960s, the communists themselves
were confronted with this radical form of political resistance. The first living torch in Eastern
Europe was Ryszard Siwiec, who set himself on
fire on 8 September 1968 in Warsaw to protest
Poland’s participation in the occupation of
Czechoslovakia. The 59-year-old bureaucrat
from Przemysl carefully prepared his action. He
typed up fliers and tape recorded a message
in which he charged the Soviet Union with
imperialism. He acquired tickets to a harvest
festival at the 10th Anniversary Stadium in
Warsaw at which the top leadership of the
state and party would be present. In the
stands he covered himself with solvent and
set himself on fire. After the fire was put out,
Siwiec was transferred to the hospital, where
he died after four days. The secret police succeeded in suppressing the tragic event. (By all
accounts Jan Palach knew nothing of Siwiec’s
self-immolation). The Polish bureau of Radio
Free Europe did not broadcast the news of his
action until March 1969, when it acquired new
testimony as to the event.
Military map with locations
of the Polish units on
Czechoslovak territory in
August 1968 (Source: Institute
for the National Memory,
Warsaw)
Ryszard Siwiec, a 59-year-old
bureaucrat from Przemysl,
(Source: Personal archive of Wit
Siwiec)
Photograph of Ryszard Siwiec
on fire, taken from a film
recorded by the secret police
at the Stadium of the Decades
(Source: Institute for the
National Memory, Warsaw)
Occupying Polish units in
Czechoslovakia, 21 August
1968 (Source: Institute for the
National Memory, Warsaw)
Ryszard Siwiec’s last will and
testament, written in April
1968 (Source: Institute for the
National Memory, Warsaw)
Civic Militia Report on selfimmolation of Ryszard Siwiec,
8 September 1968 (Source:
Institute for the National
Memory, Warsaw)
Commemorative march through Prague,
20 January 1969 (Photo: Miroslav Hucek)
The hunger strike at the
National Museum began
on 18 January 1969. (Photo:
Dagmar Hochová)
Hunger striker (Source:
National Museum)
Hunger strikers’ tents in front
of the National Museum,
20 January 1969 (Photo: Miloň
Novotný)
March on 20 January 1969
(Photo: Jiří Všetečka)
Participants in the
commemorative march in
Prague, 20 January 1969
(Photo: Miroslav Hucek)
Náměstí Krasnoarmějců
(“Red Army Square”) in front
of the Philosophical Faculty
of Charles University was
spontaneously renamed Jan
Palach Square on 20 January
1969 (Source: ABS)
Society’s reaction
On the evening of 16 January 1969, the radio
broadcast the news of the self-immolation of a
student, J. P. Hundreds of new items, reportages and commentaries on Palach’s action
followed over the next few days in both the
domestic and foreign media. The public was
both shocked and shaken by Palach’s radical
protest, but instead of the political activity that
he called for in his final letter, people withdrew into themselves. In February 1969, literary
critic Jindřich Chalupecký noted: This action,
announced as a political one, has fallen out of
political context. People are occupied by it to an
immeasurable degree, both internally and externally, but they are expressing themselves through
silence. The crowds at Palach’s funeral had an
enormous physical power, but everyone remained
quiet, turned inward.
One of the first actions to support Palach’s
demands was a hunger strike initiated by a
group of young people beneath the ramp of
the National Museum on 18 January 1969. The
hunger strikers remained in their tents in the
freezing weather for four days, after which the
hunger strike ended.
On 20 January 1969, the day after Jan Palach’s
death, a commemorative march through Prague was joined by several tens of thousands
of people. The action, organized by the Union
of College Students of Bohemia and Moravia,
began at Wenceslas Square and ended in front
of the building of the Philosophical Faculty
of Charles University, where several speakers
spoke from its gallery. Similar mourning events
took place in many other towns throughout
Czechoslovakia. Just as in August 1968, the
main gathering place for the public became
Wenceslas Square in Prague. In front of the statue of St. Václav, which was covered with fliers,
portraits of Palach, and candles, an honor
guard stood with a flag. A death mask of Jan
Palach was exhibited at the fountain in front
of the National Museum and dedicated to
the students by the sculptor Olbram Zoubek.
Poets also responded to Palach’s action in January 1969; the poems published in newspapers and journals impressively captured the
atmosphere of the day.
The square was marked with
enamel signs bearing its new
name a few days later, but
they were removed before
long (Photo: Miloň Novotný)
Honor guard before the
fountain of the National
Museum (Photo: Dagmar
Hochová)
The songwriter Bohdan
Mikolášek composed the song
“Ticho” (“Quiet”) in response
to the march of 20 January
1969. It was later used in the
film of the same name by the
director Milan Peer (Source:
Libri Prohibiti)
Front page of the daily
Svobodné slovo, 21 January
1969 (Source: ABS)
Questionnaire of the Charles
University journal, 24 January
1969 (Source: Authors’ archives)
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and Alexander Dubček photographed
in February 1968 (Source: ČTK, Photo: Jiří Rublič)
Flier with information
on the first meeting of
representatives of the college
students with the Czech
government after Jan Palach’s
action, 17 January 1969
(Source: ABS)
The position of government
and party representatives was
also reflected in the responses
of the Western press agencies.
These were summarized by
ČTK (Source: ABS)
The Czech government and
President Ludvík Svoboda
asked many famous
personalities to go on radio
and television to convince
potential followers of Jan
Palach not to take similar
action. The poet Jaroslav
Seifert also issued an appeal
to young people (Source: ABS)
The regime’s reaction
During the second half of January 1969, the
leadership of the state and the Communist
Party were trying both to mend the situation,
which was like a re-opened wound, and to
keep a shocked society under control. Even
though most politicians expressed regret over
Jan Palach’s action, they simultaneously rejected the form of his protest. At several meetings
with representatives of the college students,
they said their demands were impossible to
meet.
On 19 January 1969, the security services were
put on their highest state of alert since the
August occupation. The Office for Press and
Information issued an order to editors on 20
January 1969 that they publish only official
communications. Sixteen foreign journalists
were deported. On that same day in Bratislava
there was a meeting of the Presidium of the
Central Committee of the Slovak Communist
Party under the leadership of Gustáv Husák.
The resolution adopted at the meeting was
bluntly threatening. On the other hand, the
Czech government made an agreement with
the college students that there would first be
a commemorative march through Prague and
then a public farewell to Jan Palach.
Palach’s action was condemned only by the
dogmatists around the Libeň-based organization of the KSČ, who alleged he had been manipulated. This thesis was developed primarily
by Czechoslovak MP Vilém Nový, who gave
an interview to the foreign press agency AFP
on 29 February 1969 in which he first publicly
explained his theory of “cold fire”, alleging
that someone had convinced Palach to douse
himself with a material that could be set
alight without actually burning him, but that
something went wrong and he was injured.
Nový said “right-wing” authors and commentators bore responsibility. It was soon proven
that his claims were a lie. A letter sent on 23
January 1969 from the First Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid
Ilyich Brezhnev and the Chair of the Council
of Ministers of the USSR, Alexei Nikolayevich
Kosygin, to Alexander Dubček and Oldřich
Černík clearly proves the source of this analysis
of the “manipulated student”. In the letter, the
Soviet representatives expressed their great
uneasiness over the situation in Czechoslovakia, labeling Jan Palach a victim of provocateurs
who had forced him to this tragic act.
Rudé právo, 23 January 1969
(Source: ABS)
Gustáv Husák preparing to
speak to television viewers
immediately after being
elected First Secretary of the
Central Committee of the
KSČ, 17 April 1969 (Source: ČTK,
Photo: Jiří Kruliš) Copy of one of the
disinformation fliers on the
alleged manipulation of Jan
Palach (Source: ABS)
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and
Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin
called Jan Palach a victim of
provocateurs on 23 January
1969 (Source: National Archive)
Czech translation of the letter
from Brezhnev and Kosygin
(Source: National Archive)
Vilém Nový (on the left),
a member of the Central
Committee of the KSČ, in
discussion with Ota Šik, 1 April
1968 (Source: ČTK, Photo: Jiří
Rublič)
Photo from the demonstration on 26 January 1968,
preserved in the State Security files (Source: ABS)
Cover of an album with
photographs of the Prague
demonstration on 26
January 1969 (Source: ABS)
These students are leaving
the campus of the dormitory
in Brno-Husovice to pay
their respects to the
memory of Jan Palach.
On 21 January 1969, the
dormitories were renamed
for him (Source: ČTK, Photo:
Emil Bican)
Street demonstrations
One of the most visible responses of the
public to Jan Palach’s action was the many
street demonstrations that took place. In many
towns several tens of thousands of people
participated in peaceful, commemorative
marches. Most of these were organized by
representatives of the college students and
the security forces did not intervene. However,
in the center of Prague there were also several
spontaneous demonstrations against the occupation of Czechoslovakia and the oncoming
“normalization”.
On 17 January 1969, people gathered on
Wenceslas Square at spots where fliers with
information about the tragic event had been
posted, primarily at the statue of St. Václav
and near the scene of Palach’s action. On the
evening of the next day, the first spontaneous
demonstration took place in the center of
Prague, attended by a thousand people, most
of them young. According to the police report
they chanted various slogans such as “Abolish
censorship!” “Ban Zprávy!” “Russians go home!”
as well as abusive slogans against Brezhnev
and Husák. Similar street demonstrations
also took place on the day after Jan Palach’s
funeral. On 26 January 1969 at around 5:00 PM,
several hundred people gathered at the statue
of St. Václav. From there the march headed
for Můstek, passing through the center of
town into Karmelitská street. Gradually more
and more people joined the demonstration,
which was estimated to total roughly 3,000
people. After security forces intervened, some
of the demonstrators returned to the center of
Prague, where they clashed with police once
more. Finally the demonstrators were pushed
into Opletalová street. A total of 193 persons
were detained, most of them young workers.
On 27 January 1969, groups of young people
once again gathered on Wenceslas Square. In
the evening hours a final demonstration then
took place in the center of Prague, attended
by approximately 2,000 people. The next day
barriers were set up around the statue of St.
Václav to prevent people from gathering there.
Security forces did not
intervene against the
commemorative gatherings.
This photograph shows a
march through Ostrava by
students, instructors and
employees of the Báňská
College on 21 January 1969
(Source: ČTK, Photo: Věněk
Švorčík)
First page of the orders
issued 24 January 1969
by Colonel Josef Hrubý
to the head of the police
administration on security
measures for Jan Palach’s
funeral (Source: ABS)
Photographs from the
demonstration on 26
January 1969 preserved in
State Security files (Source:
ABS)
Report from the Prague
Municipal Police
Administration on the
demonstration that took
place in the center of the
capital on 26 January 1969
(Source: ABS)
The catafalque with Jan Palach’s coffin was displayed next to the
statue of Jan Hus in the Karolinum (Photo: Miroslav Hucek)
People waited almost eight
hours in order to pay their respects to Jan Palach’s memory
(Photo: Miroslav Hucek)
Call by the Prague Student
Action Committee and the
Presidium of the Union of
College Students of Bohemia
and Moravia (Source: ABS)
This unique color photograph
of the funeral of Jan Palach
was preserved in the State
Security files (Source: ABS)
Honor guard by Jan Palach’s
coffin
Tens of thousands of people
passed through the courtyard
of the Karolinum
Education Minister Vilibald
Bezdíček giving the eulogy
The hearse on the Old
Town Square (Staroměstské
náměstí)
Lowering the coffin at Olšanský cemetery
The procession ended in front
of the building of the Philosophical Faculty
Honor guard for Jan Palach by
the statue of St. Václav
25 January 1969
The funeral of Jan Palach was planned for
Saturday, 25 January 1969. It was organized by
the Union of College Students of Bohemia and
Moravia (SVS), which earned the consent of
the authorities thanks to the peaceful conduct
of the commemorative march on 20 January.
SVS wanted to bury their colleague at the Slavín cemetery, but were not able to get official
consent. The Olšanský cemetery was thus
chosen as Jan Palach’s final resting place.
The coffin with Palach’s remains was on display
in the Karolinum as of Friday, 24 January 1969,
where tens of thousands of people came to
bid farewell to the deceased student. During
the late morning of 25 January 1969, the commemoration continued, and shortly after noon
the funeral began in the Karolinum courtyard.
Speeches were made by the Rector of Charles
University, Oldřich Starý; the Dean of the Philosophical Faculty, Jaroslav Kladiva; and students
Zdeněk Touš and Michael Dymáček. Education
Minister Vilibald Bezdíček also spoke; he and
Sports Minister Emanuel Bosák were the only
government representatives at the funeral.
However, both men were practically unknown
to the public as they had only taken office on
8 January 1969. No truly important state or
party officials attended the funeral.
After the service the coffin was transferred into
the hearse, which was followed by a procession that crossed Ovocný trh and Celetná street
onto the Old Town Square (Staroměstské
náměstí), ending in front of the Philosophical
Faculty building. The final farewell at Olšanský
cemetery was attended only by family, invited
guests and journalists. The evangelical priest
Jakub S. Trojan delivered a graveside sermon
emphasizing that Jan Palach had sacrificed
himself for others: “In this cynical century, in
which others often horrify us, and we horrify
them, and in which we are often startled by how
petty we all are inside, he led us to ask a question
that can make us great: What have I done for
others, what kind of heart do I have, who am I
following, whom do I serve, what, for me, is life’s
greatest value?”
Pass to the funeral in the
Karolinum and the funeral at
Olšanský cemetery (Source:
ABS)
Funeral service in the Karolinum (Photo: Miloň Novotný)
Photo of Libuše Palachová (in
the center), Jiří Palach (on the
left), and his wife Ilona next to
him (Source: ABS)
Funeral procession on the
Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) (Photo: Miloš
Schmiedberger)
View into Pařížská street (Photo: Miloš Schmiedberger)
People waited at the Rudolfinum for the hearse carrying
Jan Palach’s coffin (Photo:
Miloň Novotný)
Pastor Jakub S. Trojan by Jan
Palach’s grave (Source: ABS)
Jan Zajíc during the hunger strike in front of the National
Museum; photo from the film “Tryzna” (“Memorial”) in which
he was randomly captured (Source: Slovak Film Institute)
Jan Zajíc (Source: ABS)
Jan Zajíc’s declaration “To the
Citizens of the Czechoslovak
Republic”, which he left at the
scene of his action (Source:
ABS)
Police communiqué on Jan
Zajíc’s action, 25 February
1969 (Source: ABS)
Funeral of Jan Zajíc in Vítkov,
2 March 1969 (Photo: Miroslav
Hucek)
Photo from the file of the
investigation into Jan Zajíc’s
self-immolation (Source: ABS)
The funeral of Jan Zajíc was
conducted according to the
church’s rules for the funeral
of an unmarried young man.
(Photo: Miroslav Hucek)
Jan Zajíc and Evžen Plocek
According to the available testimonies and
archival documents, the group mentioned in
Palach’s final letter apparently did not exist at
all. Of course, during the first months of 1969
many other people followed Palach’s example
who had never known him personally. However, it turned out that most of them merely
following the form of his deed and were not
politically motivated.
On 20 January 1969, a 25-year-old worker,
Josef Hlavatý, set himself on fire and died five
days later. He told doctors he had set himself
on fire to protest the Soviet occupation.
The worker Miroslav Malinka also attempted
self-immolation with an express reference to
Palach’s action (on 22 January 1969 in Brno), as
did the 16-year-old apprentice Jan Bereš (on
26 January 1969 in Cheb). Of course, Hlavatý,
Malinka and Bereš all suffered from significant
personal or family problems, and their actions
were therefore condemned by the general
public. Only Jan Zajíc and Evžen Plocek,
whose idealistic motives were never doubted,
are therefore considered Palach’s successors.
Jan Zajíc, an 18-year-old student at the railway
technical school in Šumperk, participated
in the hunger strike in front of the National
Museum in Prague on 21 January 1969. He did
not return to his native Vítkov in the Opava
region until after Palach’s funeral. According
to all accounts, the overwrought atmosphere
in the capital had a strong effect on him.
During the hunger strike, Jan Zajíc had spoken
of the possibility of sacrificing himself just
as Palach had if none of the other college
students would do so, but the other hunger
strikers talked him out of it. After returning
to Šumperk, he began to contemplate this
option again and even spoke publicly of
his plan. He would not allow himself to be
convinced otherwise by his friends, taking the
train to Prague with one of them, Jan Nykl, on
25 February 1969. He set himself on fire in the
hallway of the building at Wenceslas Square
39 and died on the spot. People learned of
his action and the declaration he wrote both
from the media and from various fliers posted
around.
The last known living torch of 1969 was
Evžen Plocek of Jihlava, a 39-year-old father,
union member and delegate to the Vysočany
Congress of the KSČ. He set himself on fire
on the main square in Jihlava on Good Friday,
4 April 1969. He left fliers at the site with the
following slogans: The truth is revolutionary –
Antonio Gramsci and I am for showing a human
face, I cannot bear heartlessness. – Evžen.
However, his action received no response
outside of Jihlava, as the media were not
permitted to report on it.
Jan Zajíc was not a member
of any group, but he did try to
convince other people in his
circle to set themselves on fire
in protest. He left a suitcase
with the necessary materials
for one of them at the Main
Station in Prague (Source: ABS)
On 26 January 1969, the 16year-old apprentice Jan Bereš
attempted self-immolation
in Cheb; his personal data
have been redacted from the
police report (Source: ABS)
Police notes on the self-immolation of Josef Hlavatý, 20
January 1969 (Source: ABS)
The funeral procession with
the coffin of Evžen Plocek passing through Jihlava; several
thousand people participated,
11 April 1969 (Source: ČTK,
Photo: František Nesvadba)
Evžen Plocek (Source: Authors’
archive)
Evžen Plocek worked in the
Motorpal enterprise in Jihlava.
This is where the final viewing
began (Source: ČTK, Photo:
František Nesvadba)
Cover of the recording “Kde končí svět” (“Where the World Ends”),
designed by Jaroslav Šerých. The recording was published by
the Ariston collective several weeks after Palach’s action. In 1970
members of State Security investigated the circumstances of its
release (Source: Personal archive of Jaroslav Šerých)
Very valuable sources
regarding Jan Palach’s action
have been preserved in the
police files from 1969. First
page of the protocol from his
mother’s interrogation dated
3 March 1969 (Source: ABS)
Resolution of the police
investigators to halt the
criminal proceedings related
to Jan Palach’s action
(Source: ABS)
The “Palach Crackdown”
Police investigators researched the
circumstances of Palach’s action in detail for
several months. They were mainly interested
in whether anyone else besides Palach had
participated in his self-immolation.
They interrogated many witnesses,
commissioned several expert evaluations and
wrote many reports for the Interior Ministry
leadership. In June 1969 they halted the
criminal proceedings against a “person or
persons unknown” due to their failure to find
any concrete evidence as to the existence of
the group Palach mentioned in his final letters.
The leadership of the State Security forces (StB)
was also interested in the investigation from
the beginning, but did not have very much
influence over its approach or conclusions.
The secret police renewed their interest on the
first anniversary of Palach’s action. In February
1970, Major Jiří Dvořák proposed an agency/
operative elaboration and documentation of
the suicide of the student Jan Palach. Several
weeks later an investigative unit was registered with the cover name “Palach” and all the
documentation discovered was filed there.
The StB focused not only on reviewing the
previous investigation, but also tried to discover materials for targeted political counterpropaganda. They contacted several witnesses
and secretly recorded their testimonies. They
also investigated the circumstances of the
publication and distribution of the recording
“Kde končí svět” (“Where the World Ends”),
which included the speeches made at Palach’s
funeral in addition to several older poems.
State Security members also attempted to
prevent public commemoration of Palach’s action on an annual basis. In October 1973 they
forced his relatives to agree to the exhumation
of his remains and to the destruction of the
grave at the Olšanský cemetery. Even though
State Security was literally obsessed with the
idea that a group of “living torches” did exist, it
never discovered any reliable evidence for this
claim. Security forces were regularly on alert
in connection with the anniversary of Palach’s
action. However, their concern that there
might be street demonstrations during “Palach
week” was not fulfilled until 20 years later.
Secret police report on
confiscating fliers on the first
anniversary of Jan Palach’s
death in January 1970
(Source: ABS)
State Security notes on
finding a photograph of Jan
Palach on a bulletin board at
ČKD, 15 January 1970
(Source: ABS)
Decision to establish an
investigative unit on Jan
Palach’s action, 5 February
1970 (Source: ABS)
State Security monitored
Libuše Palachová’s
correspondence for many
years. They also confiscated
a letter in which she thanks a
correspondent for expressing
condolences (Source: ABS)
State Security propaganda
article prepared for use in the
press, 25 January 1972
(Source: ABS)
Proposal by State Security
agent Captain Josef Bín to
establish an investigative unit
(Source: ABS)
Jan Palach’s grave at Olšanský
cemetery (Source: ABS)
The death mask of Jan Palach
was created by the sculptors
Olbram Zoubek and Antonín
Chromek (on the right). After
the secret police intervention,
copies of the cast were
not allowed to be publicly
displayed (Source: National
Museum, ABS)
Members of the police
monitored Jan Palach’s grave
for several years (Source: ABS)
The “Grave Crackdown”
Several months after his death, reminders of
Palach were erased from the collective memory. While Libuše Palachová had received a telegram expressing condolences on 19 January
1969 from Ludvík Svoboda, Alexander Dubček,
Josef Smrkovský and Oldřich Černík, by the
first anniversary of Palach’s death in January
1970 his name was not publicly remembered
anywhere in Czechoslovakia. Several attempts
to erect a monument to him ended in failure
and their initiators soon became objects of
secret police interest.
On the basis of a State Security plan (with the
cover name “Grave”), Jan Palach’s final resting
place at Olšanský cemetery was gradually
destroyed. At the start of the 1970s it continued to be visited by a large number of
people bringing flowers, lighting candles and
leaving written messages. The bronze plaque
at the grave, designed by the sculptor Olbram
Zoubek, was removed in July 1970 and melted
down after several months.
In October 1973, after an extended period of
blackmail by the secret police, Libuše Palachová and Jiří Palach finally agreed to the
exhumation and subsequent cremation of
Jan Palach’s remains. Under the supervision of
members of the secret police, employees of
the Olšanský cemetery administration dug up
Palach’s remains in the early morning hours
of 22 October 1973 and had them cremated
at the crematorium in Strašnice. A new tomb
with the name of Marie Jedličková appeared at
Palach’s gravesite. Libuše Palachová received
the urn with his ashes. It was not until the end
of March 1974 that she was able to lay it to rest
at the cemetery in Všetaty. It was only possible
to renovate Jan Palach’s grave at Olšany after
the fall of the communist regime. On 25 October 1990, the urn with his ashes was solemnly
transferred from Všetaty to Prague.
In April 1969, Palach’s fellow
citizens in Všetaty wanted to
build a memorial to him. Their
efforts were later investigated
by State Security (Source: ABS)
The sculptor Olbram Zoubek
created this bronze plaque for
the grave. This photograph
was taken by the secret
police, which had the plaque
destroyed in 1970 (Zdroj: ABS)
An article on the renovation
of Jan Palach’s grave
published in the Občanský
deník on 26 October 1990
(Source: Authors’ archive)
State Security informer
“Dalibor” delivered a letter to
the secret police which he
intercepted at the dormitory
Na Větrníku. The authors of
the letter called on students
to take care of Jan Palach’s
gravesite (Source: ABS)
This square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, previously
named “Place de Varsovie” (Warsaw Square), was
renamed Jan Palach Square in 1969 (Source: ČTK)
The Roman daily Il Tempo
initiated a collection to build
a memorial to Jan Palach
shortly after his death. On 18
January 1970, Mayor Clelio
Darida unveiled the memorial
(Source: ABS)
The evangelical pastor Oskar
Brüsewitz from the East
Germany town of Rippicha
provoked the regime through
many of his actions. In 1976
Brüsewitz was reproved by
the pro-regime leadership
of the church, which wanted
to transfer him to a different
workplace. Brüsewitz decided
to undertake a radical protest.
On 18 August 1976 he arrived
at the square in Zeitz, placed
fliers on the roof of his car
expressing his protest against
the regime, and set himself
on fire. He died in hospital on
22 August 1976 (Source: Robert
Havemann Gesellschaft)
The response abroad
International attention had been drawn to
Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring
period and most of all after 21 August 1968,
when the occupied Central European nation
earned the sympathy of almost the entire
world. In January 1969, Jan Palach’s action
drew that attention back. The world public
was moved by the exceptional nature of his
protest, which was unlike anything in Europe.
Condolences over the death of Jan Palach
were expressed by UN Secretary-General U
Thant, while Italian PM Mariano Rumor paid
tribute to his memory and Indian PM Indíra
Gandhi declared that Palach belonged among
the world’s great martyrs alongside Mahatma
Gandhi. On the day of Palach’s funeral, Pope
Paul VI also spoke out. Even though he did not
agree with the form of his protest, the Pope
said we can appreciate its value, because it
places self-sacrifice and love for others above
all else.
Students organized commemorative
processions in many Western European
cities. The largest of these occurred in Rome,
Milan, Florence, Vienna and Amsterdam. In
Italy a collection for a memorial to Palach
was initiated in January 1969. One year later
a statue was unveiled and the Roman square
on which it stands was renamed Piazza Jan
Palach. Memorials also were erected in other
cities and squares, and streets all over the
world were named in his honor. Jan Palach
also had his followers abroad. Four days after
his action, a 17-year-old student, Sándor
Bauer, set himself on fire in Budapest in front
of the National Museum in protest against
the communist regime in Hungary and the
occupation of Czechoslovakia. In April 1969,
in Riga, the same action was undertaken by
a young, talented mathematician named Ilja
Rips, who survived the attempt thanks to
intervention by police officers. The Lithuanian
student Romas Kalanta and the East German
evangelical pastor Oskar Brüsewitz also
employed Palach’s form of protest for similar
reasons.
Like many young Lithuanians,
19-year-old Romas Kalanta
was unhappy about the
Sovietization of his country.
On 14 May he decided to
undertake a radical protest,
setting himself on fire in the
center of Kaunas. Even though
he did not leave behind a
letter, his action was generally
perceived as a protest against
the Sovietization of Lithuania
The 20-year-old
mathematician Ilja Rips
also protested through
self-immolation against the
occupation of the ČSSR.
He set himself on fire on
13 April 1969 in the center
of Riga, but police officers
put the fire out. After his
action he was detained in a
psychiatric treatment facility
and then imprisoned. Today
Eliyahu Rips is a professor
at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem (Photo: Adam
Hradilek)
Grave of the Hungarian
student Sándor Bauer
(Photo: Attila Lukácsi)
The memorial to Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc on Wenceslas
Square in Prague was unveiled on 16 January 2000. It was
designed by the artist Barbora Veselá (Photo: Viktor Portel)
The meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Jan
Palach’s self-immolation was
meant to be just one of many
peaceful demonstrations
against the regime. However,
unlike earlier gatherings, it
was unexpectedly violently
dispersed by the state authorities. Cordons of members of
the National Security Corps
(SNB) and police vehicles are
ready to intervene, 15 January
1989 (Source: ČTK, Photo: Zuzana Humpálová)
Intervention by SNB forces
– the detained demonstrators are lying down on the
sidewalk on Wenceslas Square
(Source: ČTK)
Memorial plaque to Jan
Palach on the building of
the Philosophical Faculty of
Charles University in Prague
and a plaque to Jan Zajíc on
the building of the Industrial
Middle School in Šumperk.
Both are works by the sculptor
Olbram Zoubek and were
unveiled in 1991 (Photo: 1.
Charles University Archive, 2.
Patrik Eichler)
Tradition
The names of Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc appeared irregularly in the press for several months
following their actions. During the next 20
years their memory was kept alive to a great
extent only by Czechoslovaks in exile and the
exile press. In London, Jan Kavan founded the
agency Palach Press, which distributed news
about events in the dissident movement at
home and helped distribute exile literature. In
Paris, the French Committee for the Support of
Charter 77 was awarded the Jan Palach Prize.
The memory of Jan Palach did not return to
the public eye in Czechoslovakia until the
20th anniversary of his protest and death in
1989. On Sunday, 15 January 1989, several
independent initiatives (České děti/Czech
Children, Charta 77/Charter 77, Mírový klub
Johna Lennona/The John Lennon Peace Club,
Nezávislé mírové sdružení/The Independent
Peace Association and Společenství přátel
USA/Society of Friends of the USA) held a
commemorative gathering at the statue of St.
Václav in the center of Prague. The action was
banned by the authorities and representatives
of opposition groups were detained. However,
people came to the square anyway and the
demonstrations continued during the next
few days. The majority of them were brutally
dispersed. At the end of “Palach Week”, on 21
January 1989, the state authorities blocked the
performance of a commemoration at Palach’s
grave in Všetaty.
A few months later, students called out Jan
Palach’s name during the march on 17 November 1989 which started the fall of the communist regime. On 20 December 1989, the square
in front of the Philosophical Faculty in Prague
was again renamed after its former student. In
1991, Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc were awarded
the Order of Tomáš G. Masaryk, First Class, in
memoriam.
Memorial to Evžen Plocek on
Masaryk Square (Masarykově
náměstí) in Jihlava (Source:
ČTK, Photo: Luboš Pavlíček)
The journalist Jiří Lederer was
the author of the first in-depth
book ever devoted to Jan
Palach’s action. His reportage
was first published in 1982
in Switzerland. Six years later
the writer Lenka Procházková
prepared its samizdat
publication in Czechoslovakia
(Source: Authors’ archives)
In 1990 the Czech version of
Lederer’s book was published
(Source: Authors’ archives)
In 1991, students of the Philosophical Faculty of Charles
University prepared a collection of texts and photographs
entitled Ve jménu života
Vašeho (In the Name of Your
Life) (Source: Authors’ archives)
In 1980, Czechoslovak
emigrants in Switzerland published a collection of poems,
brief musings and testimonies
entitled Živé pochodně (Living Torches) (Source: Authors’
archives)
Miroslav Slach taught Jan
Palach history at elementary
school in Všetaty. In 1994
he published a book of memories of Jan Palach (Source:
Authors’ archives)
Organizers:
Faculty of Philosophy & Arts, Charles University in Prague and the National Museum
Partners: The Archive of Security Forces, Slovak Film Institute, The Institute for the Study
of Totalitarian Regimes, ETNA spol. s r. o.
Authors: Petr Blažek, Patrik Eichler, Jakub Jareš
Curator: Jakub Jareš
Supervision: Michal Stehlík
Graphic design and exhibition architecture: Jáchym Šerých
Editor: Veronika Jáchimová
Translation: Gwendolyn Albert
Exhibited items on loan from:
The Archive of Security Forces
Archive of the Territory of Moravia
Museum for the Study of the Homeland, Šumperk
Archive of Charles University
Photographs and documents:
The Archive of Security Forces (ABS)
Archive of Charles University (Archiv UK)
Czech Press Agency (ČTK)
Libri Prohibiti
National Archive
National Museum
Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft, Germany
Institute for the National Memory, Warsaw
Institute for Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
a public research institute (ÚSD AV ČR)
Personal archive of Adam Hradilek
Personal archive of Jiří Müller
Personal archive of Jiří Palach
Personal archive of Wit Siwiec
Personal archive of Jaroslav Šerých
Personal archive of Ladislav Žižka
Dagmar Hochová
Miroslav Hucek
Attila Lukácsi
Miloň Novotný (i.a. cover photo)
Viktor Portel
Miloš Schmiedberger
Miloš Šindelář
Vladimír Tůma
Jiří Všetečka
Films:
National Film Archive
Slovak Film Institute
Thanks to:
Tomáš Bursík, Hubert Bystřičan, Petr Cajthaml, Marek Ďurčanský, Přemysl Fialka, Pavlína
Formánková, Jiří Gruntorád, Štěpán Hlavsa, Jiří Hoppe, Łukasz Kamiński, Iva Kvapilová,
Alena Novotná, Jaroslav Pažout, Světlana Ptáčníková, Antonín Slavíček, Petruška Šustrová,
Kristina Vlachová